“I tried to control my emotions”: Nursing Home Care Workers’ Experiences of Emotional Labor in China

Abstract

Despite dramatic expansions in the Chinese nursing home sector in meeting the increasing care needs of a rapidly aging population, direct care work in China remains largely devalued and socially unrecognized. Consequently, scant attention has been given to the caregiving experiences of direct care workers (DCWs) in Chinese nursing homes. In particular, given the relational nature of care work, there is little knowledge as to how Chinese DCWs manage emotions and inner feelings through their emotional labor. This article examines the emotional labor of Chinese DCWs through ethnographic data collected with 20 DCWs in one nursing home located in an urban setting in central China. Data were analyzed using conventional content analysis and constant comparison. Participants’ accounts of sustaining a caring self, preserving professional identity, and hoping for reciprocity revealed implicit meanings about the often-conflicting nature of emotional labor and the nonreciprocal elements of care work under constrained working conditions. Importantly, the moral-cultural notion of bao (报 norm of reciprocity) was found to be central among DCWs in navigating strained resources and suggested their agency in meaning-construction. However, their constructed moral buffers may be insufficient if emotional labor continues to be made invisible by care organizations.

Professional attractiveness among long-term care workers in nursing homes in China: a cross-sectional study

“…In the 1990s, many workers in state-owned factories were laid off in the course of market reforms and were left in a precarious situation due to the lack of re-employment programs. Many of these workers entered the care sector as a last resort due to the high demand and low barriers to employment in the care sector in urban areas [ 39 ]. They are satisfied with possessing a job, so that the LTC industry is relatively more desirable to them.…”

Cross-cultural metathemes of Chinese and Japanese university students' perspective on parental care

“…In China, attitudes toward nursing homes have shifted from it being a stigma to recognizing that nursing homes can provide high-cost professional care; nonetheless, some negative attitudes remain ( 34 ). It has also been reported that Chinese nursing homes are of low quality and have a low capacity to accommodate the older adults in China ( 35 ). For these reasons, putting parents in a nursing home is seen as unfilial, and many parents resist moving there.…”

“…As a result, the lack of care skills and the poor quality of medical care have received widespread attention ( 38 ). Even though the Chinese government has published “basic specifications of service quality in senior care organization,” careworker in nursing homes was found underqualified for care work than other Western countries ( 35 ). Careworker job vacancies by prefecture in Japan are on average 3.97 times higher than the number of care workers employed in nursing homes ( 39 ).…”

Challenges and coping experiences faced by nursing staff in long-term care facilities in China: a qualitative meta-analysis

“…In general, according to existing research, challenges faced by Chinese Nursing staff mainly stemmed from a lack of professional knowledge and skills ( 9 , 10 ), workload and time pressure ( 11 – 13 ), compensation and benefits ( 9 , 14 ), institutional management ( 15 , 16 ), and interpersonal relationships ( 17 ), among other factors. Particularly in the realm of interpersonal relationships, nursing staffs in Chinese older adult care seemed to face greater complexity.…”

“…Research indicates that Chinese older adult nursing staff are more likely to adopt proactive coping strategies to deal with the difficulties they encounter in their work. This includes adjusting salary structures ( 14 ), gaining educational opportunities ( 28 ), receiving support from nursing managers ( 15 ), and ensuring job stability ( 29 ), among other factors. However, current research tends to focus more on the challenges and coping strategies of nursing staff in their work, with less attention given to the challenges, impacts, and coping strategies related to their professional needs, family responsibilities, and societal discrimination.…”